Blogging about life in Minnesota, raising our six kids with Down syndrome while battling Breast Cancer.

Be the kind of woman that when your feet hit the floor in the morning the devil says, "Oh shit! She's up!"

Tuesday, July 07, 2009

A new kind of shopping

Today Angela and I went shopping for a couple meals worth of groceries. I talked alot about soft foods, and "hard foods". But I explained that for her "hard foods" are things that are "hard" for her to swallow. I talked to the point that her eyes glassed over and I believe she was rolling them at me. Finally, when she stuck her tongue out at me in frustration I decided to just shut up and shop.

I did spend a fair amount of time on breakfast stuff. This is the most difficult meal to get her to eat, and all of the "soft foods" she can eat are things she doesn't care for. She doesn't like oatmeal, or hot cereal in general, or eggs. I can get her to eat eggs if I call egg salad "yellow salad" instead, but she'll ask me as she takes each bite "No eggs in here, right?" This morning for breakfast I made her malto meal with bananas in it. Yeah, she ate all the bananas out of it and left the rest. Bananas aren't the greatest thing for her though, since she's so easily constipated! UGH, this is going to be a balancing act!

Speaking of constipation, since she can't eat bread, I've been wondering how I get fiber into her? I got the brilliant idea to get some metamucil, only to find that the label has this warning label:


So, no Metamucil for Angela! I got her some Benefiber instead, and it didn't have any of those warnings, so we'll see how it goes!

Angela did ask about pancakes. I'm not sure about those...the way she chews (or a better description would be how she DOESN'T chew) she tends to swallow each bite in a big wad, and I could see that getting stuck.

I'm still on the fence what to do about camp. She's eaten this way for 12 years, so what's another week while she's at camp? If I change her food program for camp, that puts her into a totally different category, and she won't be able to attend this camp, instead needing the respite camp instead. What are your thoughts?

Well, I told Dean an hour and a half ago that I was headed to bed. And, as I type this I realized there is paperwork that is due to the county tomorrow that I haven't even started yet. So, off to get that done.

Oh, Angela started ESY this morning. (It actually started yesterday but we were at Mayo.) She was THRILLED that there are friends there she hasn't seen in a couple of years! She came home SO HAPPY. Not to mention exhausted. She had softball tonight and fell asleep on the way home. When we got in the driveway I couldn't wake her up. Finally after several minutes of poking and prodding, she opened one eye and said, "Mom, I'm so tired. I'm going straight to bed." Which is exactly what she did! Gotta love that!




3 comments:

Tilly Cat & Pip-Squeak said...

This sounds like a dim suggestion probably, but couldn't you "re-teach" her to pick tiny bits of food and eat them (the way you described she USED to eat in a previous post.) Also, if there's something that she really likes the taste of that she can't eat, couldn't she have it pureed? I know it sounds weird to us, but she might not mind! My son is really fussy with food textures, and sometimes I puree the food I *really* want him to eat. (Ok, he's only 2 but still...)

Good luck with the change anyway... I'm thinking of you.

Anna

Bethany said...

I'm just catching up on everything here ... I'm so sorry you guys are having to deal with this! Poor girl!

About the fiber ... what about strawberries and blueberries? Those are great sources of fiber. Also, for breakfast, what about making smoothies? That way you could gets lots of good stuff in them, if she likes them?

Syncopa said...

Another catcher-upper here. Just wanted to tell you that we use Benefiber with Bene (the brand name sounds like they designed it for her!! lol), and it works out great for her! I hope it does the trick for Angela, too. Although Benefiber doesn't swell up, it's important to get enough liquid in her - but I think you know that already ;)
Solveig